In the following essay, Carey and Williams perceive confession to be a significant element of Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr.

1. Absence, Replacement, and Confession in the Novel

Unamuno in San Manuel Bueno, mártir has created a fictional intra-historia, the “inner history” of his characters' lives.1 The narrator of the novel, Angela Carballino, in her role as confessor, lays bare her own alma, her “soul,” as well as that of her brother Lázaro, but primarily that of Don Manuel, the village priest. The first-person point of view2 lends itself especially well to the nudity of characterization that...